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Topic: Looking for a Turbofan engine for a backstory (Read 3197 times)

I need it to be in about the 15-20,000lb thrust class (reheat). Preferably non-American if at all possible, for political reasons. It doesn't have to reached production stage but preferably it would have a diameter of about 1,200 mm.

Agreed, timeframe is the critical factor, here. Just to be certain I understand, that's 15-20,000 lb. thrust in reheat or that thrust dry and capable of reheat (use of reheat does limit you on bypass ratio)?

The Olympus was a turbojet though, not a turbofan. The Rolls Royce Conway might fit the bill: 17,500 lb dry and 960mm diameter. They never built an afterburning one, but it must have been studied because the engine was offered for the P.1121 and TSR.2. Hard to imagine an afterburner that wouldn't get you your 20,000lb and then some.....

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"I have described nothing but what I saw myself, or learned from others" - Thucydides

"I've jazzed mine up a bit" - Spike Milligan

"I'm a general specialist," - Harry Purvis in Tales from the White Hart by Arthur C. Clarke

Would this be a full-up military engine with reheat already in place or would this state be in a position to add reheat to a commercial, or dry military, engine?

It has the technical means and ability to add reheat and a commercial engine might be easier to obtain than a military one. Commercial engines are in the mix as well. However, it has to be a "slim" one, to fit inside a military airframe, rather than hang off the wing.

How about buying a bunch of early 727's and 737's with the slim JT8D's (before the by-pass ratio went up in the -100 and -200 series JT8Ds); they have the right by-pass ratio and SAAB proved they can make a good reheated engine (as in the Viggen's RM8 which is an afterburning early-model JT8D). If memory serves me correctly, they are about the right diameter, too. The same thing could be done by purchasing a bunch of used BAC 111's for the Speys on them and then adding an indigenously-developed reheat installation.

Note: First-generation JT8D's have a diameter of roughly 1030 mm, even in the reheat-equipped RM8 for the Viggen. Considering that the turbojet version of this core is in military service as the J52 and a reheated version of that was proposed as the PW1216 with 16000 lbt in reheat, I think it would fit your scenario.